A Teacher Spanked My 4y.o. in Pre-School

I live in Nashua - New Hampshire, and my little girl goes to a private pre-school with other 4 year olds. Yesterday when my mother picked up my daughter from pre-school she was crying and said that the teacher yelled at her and spanked her on her bottom, then told her to "get out of my school".

Now granted my wife and I raise our voices at home when our little girl mis-behaves, but we've never spanked her because we don't want to use corporal punishment in our house. We prefer to raise our voice or enforce a timeout on the stairs, take away TV or the computer, or remove an activity planned later in the day that she would be looking forward to. We'll often look at her face to face and calmly describe why she is mis-behaving and why it's important not to do or act the way she is.

I'm seriously upset over hearing that someone outside our family has "spanked" my child. What do I do? What can I do? What legal action if any can I take?

Maybe I should just pull my daughter out of that school and ask for a refund since we have to pay $2,500 for her to go there each year.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The teacher cannot do that. You indeed can withdraw and seek a refund--or even press charges for that action of hitting the child.

Or a good stern warning to the person may also suffice if you otherwise wish to continue.

Thank you for the advice.

The school now knows about this incident (as of 30 minutes ago) since they inquired why we are pulling our daughter out, and has asked to schedule a meeting between their principle, the owner, and the other teacher that saw the incident. Should I seek out a lawyer to be present for this meeting or should I just wing it for now and see what they say?

My daughter has told me that some other of her friends have also been spanked in front of everyone by this same teacher. Is getting that teacher fired enough to punish this school for letting the corporal punishment of 3 & 4 year olds occur enough, or should I contact the other parents and sue the school as a group?

What is the right thing to do here?

Do not get the teacher fired. This could backfire on you. She could sue you for a lot more. Besides, we all were spanked in school back in the day, and if I remember we all respected authority. Not like todays kids.